On January 11th, Year 905 of the Black Iron Calendar, Zhang Tie's two-week holiday had just ended. His brief reunion with Bai Suxian came to a close, and he formally took up his post, departing Xuanyuan Fortress.
The Grand Marshal's appointment of Zhang Tie had shaken all of Xuanyuan Fortress the moment it was announced several days ago. At Zhang Tie's age, becoming a Principal Third Rank official of Great Xia while shouldering such weighty responsibilities—if not unprecedented throughout all ages, it was certainly as rare as a phoenix feather or qilin horn in Great Xia's history. At the very least, among all of Great Xia's Principal Third Rank officials, there was not one younger than Zhang Tie.
In Great Xia, the governor of a lower province was Principal Fifth Rank; a Central Province governor was Subordinate Fourth Rank; an upper province governor was Principal Fourth Rank; a major province governor was Subordinate Third Rank; and even a Divine Province governor was merely Principal Third Rank. The rank of a province's Chariot and Cavalry General matched that of its governor. Officials at the Protector-General level, depending on the specific circumstances of each protectorate as well as an official's seniority, achievements, and merits, were divided into four ranks ranging from Subordinate Second Rank to Principal First Rank. The Nine Ministers and the commanders of Great Xia's Four Upper Armies were Principal First Rank, while only the Three Excellencies held Divine Rank.
At such a young age, Zhang Tie had won the Grand Marshal's favor and been appointed Logistics General of the Western Theater of Great Xia, concurrently serving as Junior Historian to the Grand Marshal. He had already become the foremost figure beneath the Protector-General-level officials of Great Xia. Within the entire Western Pacification Protectorate, this position was only one rank